The claimed invention relates to an interactive system and method for multi-sensory learning, more particularly to an interactive online system for teaching students the alphabetic code with a visual, auditory, and tactile method (multi-sensory) and to read words. In addition, the claimed invention includes a research-based, multi-sensory program designed to improve the student's reading comprehension that is individually customized for each student
The education system in the United States has not been working. Many children are not learning how to read. According to the Nation's Report Card: Reading, in 2011, 37% of 4th graders and 27% of 8th graders cannot read at the basic level. In low-income urban areas, up to 70% of all students read below grade level. In looking back over the past ten years, there has been no significant improvement in any of these scores. Children who are poor readers at the end of first grade almost never acquire an average level of reading skills by the end of elementary school. Those children who are not on track by third grade have little chance of ever being on grade level. So what is the solution?
Perhaps there needs to be an overhaul of the education system in the United States. Perhaps the traditional white board and textbook form of education needs to be re-examined and replaced, or at least supplemented, with electronic forms of instruction, geared to the struggling reader, the one at risk for dropping out of school.
There have been some efforts by the federal government, but none have been overwhelming successful. One governmental program, No Child Left Behind or Supplementary Educational Services, attempted to address these problems without much success. This program tried to improve the educational performance of students who attended failing schools As a district coordinator for a very successful learning center, overseeing over 600 students, the inventor saw first-hand exactly what were the major issues in trying to teach these students how to read.
Students were asked to work in groups of 5 to 10 students, without much individual attention and were forced to keep up with the group, despite not mastering one or more concepts being trained on. He saw teachers who were apparently taught the methods used by the learning center but were unable to provide the instruction, either because they did not master the program or because they modified the program to their needs, rather than those of the students. He observed many teachers who were “burned out” from years of teaching, in terrible conditions, in over populated classrooms, not following the methods they were trained on. He saw students being passed from one grade to the next because they could not be held back any longer. He saw other students who were held back two or three years, yet were not one bit better at reading than when the first started that grade.
Accordingly, the claimed invention proceeds upon the desirability of providing an interactive online system and method for multi-sensory learning to teach students to read, to write, to improve their fluency, and to improve their reading comprehension, that is individually customized for each student.